It's not easy to get a small team of paver ants to travel to destinations a few days away in the winter, even if not as easy as a human climb to Mount Everest or a trip to the polar regions.

Even paver ants that are able to move in the wild in winter under certain conditions must make full use of the sun's energy during the day when the weather is good. If you encounter a cloudy or snowy day with no sun, or a terrain with the sun obscured by the sun, or at night, it will not be long before those unlucky paver ants who do not return to their underground nests or in the sun in time will also face the fate of death.

But the protagonist is not whimsical, he has been weighing for a long time and feels that he must make up his mind.

First of all, the current solar terms are still late autumn in previous years, and although winter arrives early, the temperature has risen to the point of keeping above freezing during the day and not too low at night. From the point of view of climate, it is still more suitable.

There is no snow on the surface now, so it will not affect the movement of the paver ants, and once the real cold wave and snowfall come, it will be difficult to send out a team to the north.

Secondly, the paver ants themselves have a certain ability to be outdoors in winter, and the protagonist is now in a position to provide them with some equipment to make up for their disadvantages.

For example, winter clothing can greatly extend the time that paver ants can be active in the absence of sunlight. The Tinder Container used by the protagonist when returning from the main nest - the Nut Shell allows the expedition to carry the Tinder, and the Tinder contained in the Nut Shell can be carried by four ants, providing additional temperature.

The most important thing, and the reason why the protagonist wants to send this expedition at any cost, is that the protagonist urgently needs to know the current situation on the north bank of the Great River.

The bizarre retreat of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army in late autumn has always unnerved the protagonist, as if something beyond his plan is emerging. The protagonist speculates whether the Paving Ant is preparing to launch a general attack on "Target A" in its more advantageous winter, in order to completely eliminate the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Big-Headed Ant Kingdom and avoid the continuous retreat and resistance of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

If this is the case, then "Target A" has already fallen into a bitter battle, and once "Target A" is lost, it will be difficult for the "bridgehead" with weak troops to block the offensive of the Paving Ant Barbarian Army. Even the "Waterfront City" is in danger.

Once this happens, the protagonist will have to adjust his expansion plan after the beginning of the next year and fall into passivity.

Now, what the protagonist is most eager for is intelligence, the fast flying knight can no longer take off, and the big-headed ants can't move in the wild, and the protagonist's only hope is these paving ants.

There is also an idea in the heart of the protagonist, which is inconvenient to express. That is, even if hundreds or thousands of paving ants are sacrificed, as long as they can obtain information, the protagonist will not hesitate.

After all, the paving ant is just a tool in the protagonist's own hands, a tool that can counterbalance the power of the big-headed ant, and a tool that can be sacrificed at any time.

In addition to the limited field activity ability and amazing fecundity in winter, the paver ant is lacking in technology and military aspects, and does not have much value, and it is not as good as the status of the hunting sickle ant in the protagonist's heart.

However, there are still some difficulties to be solved in sending a team to the north.

The main thing is the difficulty of staying overnight.

Along the way north, there are secondary nests of the big-headed ant kingdom, and it stands to reason that the northbound team can find a warm secondary nest to spend the night before sunset every day. Then we will depart again the next day.

But this is just a good wish, because there are all kinds of variables, and the protagonist does not plan to arrange it this way.

The paving ants under the protagonist's command are very different from the big-headed ants in appearance, and even the sluggish ants can distinguish the difference between them with the naked eye at close range.

Although ants, especially professional ants, still rely on smell to distinguish friend from foe, even if these paving ants look the same as old enemies, they have the breath of the Divine Envoy King Legion, and it stands to reason that they will not be troubled by the big-headed ants along the way.

However, the smell of ants mainly comes from the secretion of their own glands and the contamination of the external environment. If the northbound team moves in the cold and windy field for a long time, the odor information on the body surface is easily blown away, and the secretion of its glands will also be affected due to the lower body temperature than the normal season. The protagonist is afraid that these paver ants will be attacked by the big-headed ants of the secondary nest along the way due to their weak smell and appearance.

Even if you can pass the smell test, if you are accidentally seen by the male ant in the secondary nest, it is a trouble. Male ants are different from occupational ants in that they have higher IQs and are more suspicious, and they may not be suspicious of these paving ants with the smell of the same race but with very different appearances, but the males may be cautious and kill them. Anyway, if you kill the wrong one, dozens of worker ants will die, and the male ants will never care about this sacrifice. But killing the right one is the right decision, and it is in the interests of the kingdom.

And the protagonist currently has no intention of revealing that he has a paving ant force under his command in front of the ruler of the big-headed ant kingdom, which will bring unnecessary trouble.

For this reason, even if the northbound team arrives at "Target A", they will only enter through the entrance and exit to test a little to see if the inhabitants inside are still the big-headed ant garrison, and then they will return without further contact with it.

Since it is not possible to spend the night in the various secondary nests, you can only camp on the spot before dusk, and the most suitable thing is to dig a temporary camp deep enough in the ground, the deeper it is, the better the heat retention.

However, the frozen and hardened soil in winter was difficult to excavate, and the northbound team spent at most half a day building a camp, and most of the time they still had to hurry, so naturally they could not dig too deep caves. At this time, a fire is needed to raise the temperature of the makeshift camp.

Every night, in the makeshift camp, the paver ants can build a fire with the fuel they collect during nesting, light it with tinder, and rely on the campfire to survive the long night.

In this way, due to the need to set up temporary camps every day, and the short days in winter, the speed of the northbound team will be much lower than the normal speed in other seasons.

Even if you can use the temporary camp that has been built at the time of the return trip, it is estimated that it will take half a month to make a round trip between "Dongyang City" and "Target A".

This is still if everything is going well, in the event of a sudden snowstorm or cold spell, even if the northbound team can hide in the makeshift camp in time, it is extremely difficult to survive the lack of food and fuel.

Even a small snowfall can make it much more difficult for the team - the snow is even more difficult to navigate, and the snow particles stick to their bodies and quickly take away valuable heat......

But the protagonist has made up his mind, and when a squad is destroyed, another one will be sent. The inexplicable sense of threat in the protagonist's heart urges him to know the current situation on the north bank of the Great River at all costs!